Thursday, September 8, 2011

Several days ago when we began our blog hop I posted a piece of glass fusion by Shirley Parlin. We were showing how you can do so many different home decor projects with stencils. Several years ago Shirley got interested in doing stained glass and as her glass art evolved she began doing glass fusion. Here is her explanation of how it works...in a nutshell:

"Fusing glass is just what it says, fusing two or more pieces together. For glass you need a lot of heat and this can be accomplished with a kiln that is especially made for glass firing (which is easier to operate) or you can use a regular ceramic kiln, which requires more "watching" or monitoring. Also, you must be sure that the pieces of glass are compatible, but using the stencils is somewhat simplified because you are using a glass powder referred to as "frit".

To do the background I started with a round piece of clear stained glass for the base, cut another piece of compatible glass just a bit larger of the blue and layered it on top of the clear. Then I used the geese stencil (LG687) for the design. I positioned the stencil where I wanted it, stenciled some white glue to the area and finished it with a sifting of black glass powder, the material known as "frit". We moved the stencil for each placement and proceeded with the same application of the black "frit". Then it was fired in our kiln and violá!"

Here are a couple of smaller pieces that I made with Shirley and use as coasters, the tulips stencil (LL444) and the wave crest stencil (LL477):

Great technique! It brings back fond memories from childhood. My parents got me a jewelery making kit for Christmas one year that included a small kiln for melting powdered glass to copper pieces of jewelery (lockets, cuff links, tie clasps, etc.) I was about 8 and this started my interest in artistic endeavors! I'd love to get one of those kilns now and create some art using my stencils with ground glass (frit?). Thanks!